Firstly, one should consider that the most unexpected and spectacular drama of Hollywood is not the one that presents itself in the scene, but the one that arises behind the camera. For years, amidst turmoil, these film productions have been transformed into hellish sets filled with all sorts of things, such as the desire for power, big egos, unfortunate incidents, or simply bad luck. In addition to hazardous stunts, insane quarrels, and even death-threatening accidents, these films demonstrate how making movies can be even riskier and, on some occasions, more fascinating than the films they represent. Here is the name of the 10 most lawless movie sets in Hollywood history, ranked from the least to the most chaotic ones.
10. Suicide Squad (2016)
The decision to hire Jared Leto for the role of the Joker was, in short, setting fire to the powder keg. In his method of acting, he literally took over the set and transformed it into his eccentric territory. Among the “gifts” he offered was a live rat for Margot Robbie, which she took home until her landlord made her put it somewhere else. Other cast members weren’t as lucky and received even weirder surprises. Yet all the trouble his gags caused, he didn’t receive the payback he wanted; the movie bombed, and Leto’s Joker was put away forever.
9. Waterworld (1995)
Director Kevin Reynolds, through and through, went against the advice of Steven Spielberg, who told him never to shoot on the open sea. Needless to say, the outcome was a chain of unfortunate events. The cast and crew not only suffered from seasickness but were also stung by jellyfish, and the weather was too variable for comfort. In one particular storm, the whole set was destroyed, and in a terrifying moment, Kevin Costner almost drowned when a sudden tempest overturned his boat while he was tied to it. Without a doubt, Spielberg was quite right about this.
8. The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)
It ended up being one of the most infamous Hollywood disasters., “The Island of Dr. Moreau” was initially the dream project of Richard Stanley. The film was riddled with problems. While Bruce Willis and Val Kilmer were emotionally troubled, Marlon Brando was in grief, and Stanley had verbal confrontations with the studio. The director got fired, and everything went from bad to worse. The film flopped, but a documentary about the failure eventually became popular among fans of the film industry.
7. Cleopatra (1963)
It’s almost as if the story of Cleopatra’s off-screen life was more remarkable than the film itself. The movie’s essentially unending rewrites, production delays, and location changes led to a budget that went out of this world. The directors were changed so many times, and whichever one was there at the moment, they had very little influence on the set. Still, what attracted the journalists most was Elizabeth Taylor’s love life, which she very openly shared with Richard Burton, thus making the set a place where the media circus could be held. Unfortunately, all this excitement was not enough to stop Twentieth-Century Fox from nearly coming to its knees.
6. Pssst. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
The feud between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford is well-known in Hollywood history, and it was always fiercest on the set of this movie. They were not just enemies on the screen but had a lot of hatred for each other in real life as well. Their feud reached the peak with one of the most scandalous events at the Oscars when a friend of Crawford, who was overlooked for the award nomination, accepted the prize in place of Anne Bancroft. The controversy became so famous that it was one of the reasons Ryan Murphy’s Feud came into existence, and the off-screen drama is still alive for a new generation.
5. Apocalypse Now (1979)
Francis Ford Coppola’s Hollywood dream of Vietnam turned Hollywood nightmare. Typhoon Olga demolished several sets, Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack, and Coppola admitted that he didn’t really know if the film would ever come to an end. The original plan of shooting for five months turned into a year-long extended production, leaving the cast and crew tired out and despairing. Eventually, though, this storm gave rise to one of the most brilliant films in the history of cinema.
4. The Passion of the Christ (2004)
Jim Caviezel’s performance as Jesus was an ordeal no less than suffering. He got whipped by mistake while carrying a huge wooden cross; she dislocated his shoulder, caught hypothermia, and was even struck by lightning. Caviezel has said that he wouldn’t change the experience for anything, but the incident damaged him both physically and professionally forever.
3. Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Werner Herzog’s inclination to portray the truth was almost outrageous. Rather than faking it, he was very adamant that a 320-ton steamboat be physically dragged through the Amazon rainforest up a mountain. The procedure was incredibly slow and painful: injuries, deaths, and constant suffering among the locals and crew. This event became almost as legendary as the film, so it congratulates Herzog for a man who is ready to do everything to cross the limit.
2. Roar (1981)
What would it be like to film a movie with over a hundred lions, tigers, and untrained panthers that are free to roam the set? The answer is Roar, the film of Noel Marshall and Tippi Hedren, which was nothing but a nightmare. The actors and the crew were attacked at all times. Marshall was very close to death due to gangrene after one of the attacks on him, and Melanie Griffith had to reconstruct her face after a lion attack. Almost all of the people involved in the production were injured in one way or another, which is the reason for naming Roar to be one of the most dangerous film shoots ever.
1. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Though The Wizard of Oz was a visual delight on the screen, the set was a disaster for the performers. The makeup of the Tin Man consisted of aluminum powder, which was toxic, and therefore, he was poisoned; the Wicked Witch of the West was burned from the fire used in the pyrotechnics, and the stunt sequences were very dangerous. The cast suffered from exhaustion, got injured, and were in terrible conditions, which made The Wizard of Oz one of the darkest legacies of Hollywood.
Such unfortunate events that happened during these productions prove that there is a very dark truth behind the glamour and the glitz of Hollywood. The sets, which could have been the artists’ imaginary worlds, turned into battlefields of ego clashes, harsh living conditions, and even danger. These movies might still be referred to as classics or, in some cases, as notorious flops, but the little stories about them remind us how much sacrifice, mayhem, and in some cases outright folly it takes to create movie magic. In the end, it’s a reminder: the real drama of Hollywood doesn’t always end when the director yells “cut.”